Chulane’s Big Surprise

Commander / EDH Casual GWU (Bant) Multiplayer Primer Ramp Value Engine

Babian

Land (32)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 3x Forest
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 4x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

CardAdvantage (4)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Waterlogged Grove

Special (4)

• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Whitemane Lion

Recursion (3)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Noxious Revival

Ramp (23)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Somberwald Sage
• 1x Village Bell-Ringer

Tutor (7)

• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Worldly Tutor

HateBear (3)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Rest in Peace

Wincon (3)

• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Mirror Entity

Commander (1)

Counter (11)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Veil of Summer

Removal (9)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Protection (3)

• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper

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Introduction

After a few games with Chulane Beastmaster in my playgroup I focused the deck more and more on its central game plan. In the end there were so many changes that I made a new deck out of it:

Chulane’s Big Surprise

This deck doesn't have an explicit combo win condition, e.g. infinite card draw and win with Labman or Jace. This deck is about silently and secretly getting some inconspicuous mana dorks and hate bears onto the battlefield. To draw an outrageous number of cards in order to always have the right answers on hand and then, surprisingly, attack the opponents with a Craterhoof Behemoth effect.

Game plan

1. Start with a good hand

A good starting hand should ideally have 3-4 lands, 2-3 ramp cards and 1-2 interaction spells (counter or removal). A starting hand with less then 4 playable mana sources in total (lands, dorks, rocks) is a safe mulligan.

2. Build up your board

The first turns are mainly about ramping up to the Commander as fast as possible. Ideally, Chulane will come in Turn 4, protected by a counter on the hand.

3. Establishing board presence

After that it's about 3-4 more turns to build a small board with about 6-8 creatures and draw as many cards as possible to build the mana base. The creatures you play here can be more mana dorks or depending on the meta also the different hate bears.

4. Overrun your opponents

Then Finale of Devastation and/or Craterhoof Behemoth can come.

Eladamri's Call, Worldly Tutor or Wargate can be used to search directly for Craterhoof or to search for Spellseeker, which can then be used to fetch Finale of Devastation and thus the Craterhoof... With these both and some luck you can deal >120 trample damage and defeat an entire table with one attack.

The more consistent way, however, is certainly to search Craterhoof with the tutors and then tackle each opponent individually. You can start the next attack by bouncing Craterhoof with Chulane's ability. Finale of Devastation can then be used alongside Eternal Witness and Noxious Revival as a backup to retrieve Craterhoof from the graveyard when necessary.

As Plan B, if the Craterhoof was exiled, Mirror Entity can do a good job with Finale of Devastation as well.

How to use the tutors

The tutors can be used differently in the various phases of the game and depending on the situation.

For example, Ranger-Captain of Eos should get Shrieking Drake to start the value engine in most cases, but can also get a mana dork if you don't have a lot of mana or a certain color is missing.

The other creature tutors are usually needed to find the main "wincon" Craterhoof Behemoth, but can also bring the appropriate heatbears to the battlefield if the game threatens to end otherwise.

Enlightened Tutor will most likely look for the Sylvan Library, but there are plenty of other attractive targets. In a meta with strong graveyard synergies it might be a Rest in Peace.

Mystical Tutor and Spellseeker can be used to prepare a big Finale of Devastation. In most cases, however, they are better at making sure you have a counter on hand or the appropriate removal for a critical permanent that threatens to control the game.

What are the synergies

The deck deliberately doesn't force infinity combos (therefore Aluren is not included), but of course it has some strong synergies:

Cloudstone Curio makes sure that we can bounce creatures and (tapped) lands into our hand repeatedly in order to play them again and draw more cards. (With a CMC 1 creature and a land on the battlefield and a CMC 1 creature and a land on the hand there is of course theoretically the possibility to draw infinite cards...)

Shrieking Drake and Whitemane Lion can bounce themselves and can also provide some card draw without Cloudstone Curio.

Intruder Alarm can provide the necessary mana, as the dorks are always untapped when a creature is played. (Shrieking Drake, Intruder Alarm and e.g. Birds of Paradise theoretically result in infinite card draw again.) Otherwise Intruder Alarm also helps to cast the Craterhoof, because all dorks can be tapped for mana and then untapped and attacked.

Finally, Mirror Entity also offers a not that obvious synergy with Priest of Titania: Since Mirror Entity is not tapped for his ability, he can turn all creatures into elves for 1 mana. Then tap Priest of Titania and use Mirror Entity's ability a second time with all the extra mana we just got. So, our dorks and hate bears can surprisingly become a great threat...

Adapt to your meta

A deck must always individually match the meta in which it is played. In my playgroup almost all decks use the graveyard intensively or use die trigger and sacrifice to control the board. So there are cards like Rest in Peace, Remorseful Cleric and Tajuru Preserver in the deck. In another environments these cards could be useless and should be replaced by suitable alternatives.

If you like the deck or if the description was helpful for you, then I would appreciate an upvote :) Thanks!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.91
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Elephant 3-3 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	fav, Commander, Commander Ideas, stuff i want to do
Based on	Chulane Beastmaster Babian EDH